Sharing Life's Lessons on Living in this World and yet being Above it!

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Sunday, February 9, 2014

Bliss is when you lose yourself to the moment

No job or activity is dull or boring. Something becomes boring only
when your attention wavers.

This
is what I have learned from my guru,
Eknath Easwaran (1910~1999). He has taught “Passage Meditation” as a way to
reign in the mind, so that it attends to whatever you are doing and
experiencing in the present moment. I have understood, from my own experience,
that this is possible. The key is to immerse yourself in whatever you are
involved in. It may not always be what you love doing. But if you have to do
something, do it with full awareness – lose yourself in the process. When you
are lost in whatever you are doing – you are living fully, you are then (in) bliss!

A
very accomplished musician once accepted a King’s invitation to perform in the royal
court. The King had been inviting the musician for years. But the singer was
always elusive and reclusive. Finally he agreed. But he laid down a condition –
nobody should nod their head or sway or even move when he sang. The King was a maverick
himself. He immediately announced that if anyone violated the singer’s
condition, he or she would be beheaded. The people of the land, who were eager
to listen to this singer, for it was indeed a-once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity,
were taken aback. Many of them felt that the condition stipulated was draconian
and could not be fulfilled at all. How can you not nod or move when you hear
great music? So, they backed out of attending the concert. Several people, however,
still showed up on the morning of the performance. The King had stationed
soldiers, who had their swords drawn, all around the royal court. The singer
arrived. And he sang. It was magical – he sang with such purity, such class.
Everyone in the audience froze. It was not hard to say if they remained unmoved
because the singer held them in his spell or if they were that way fearing his
condition and their King’s absurd order! Soon, as time went by and the concert
became even more blissful, a few heads swayed, then some more and then some
others even moved their hands and blew flying kisses to the singer. The
soldiers made a note of every person who violated the King’s order. As soon as
the concert ended, they rounded these people up separately and looked to the
King for his order to behead them – then and there.

The
musician however told the King to let these people go.

The
King was not amused: “But these are the people who have violated your condition
and my order. I don’t understand this!”

The
musician replied: “They did. No doubt about that. But they did so only because
they lost themselves to the music, in their inner joy! They are the true
listeners. They risked their Life for their bliss. Those who did not move were
always thinking about the order, fearing for their Life, and worried about the
soldiers with their swords drawn. How could these people have even listened to
my song, let alone enjoy it!”

The
musician told the King that in future, whenever he visited, he would sing only
to this select audience.

The import of this story is that when you are totally immersed in
the moment, even Life becomes insignificant and inconsequential. When you are
engaged this way, worry, grief, guilt, anger, fear – nothing can touch you.
Because, in that moment, you are (in) bliss!